


Far from Home

by Vlanderzine



Series: The Glitch Saga [1]
Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Gen, Glitch AU, Tumblr
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-26
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:21:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24930724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vlanderzine/pseuds/Vlanderzine
Summary: He was freaking out, which normally wasn’t particularly out of the ordinary. Jay would be the first to admit he could be a bit dramatic at times, so him flipping his shit wasn’t weird by itself.No, what made this time special was he wasn’t with his friends-his family. He wasn’t in the monastery or on the bounty or even In ninjago.Or at least not his ninjago.
Relationships: Cole & Jay Walker, Nya/Jay Walker
Series: The Glitch Saga [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1803817
Comments: 5
Kudos: 39





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Yo! I’m Vlanderizne and this is the first installment of the Glitch Saga, a collaboration between me and a dozen or so other creators in the Ninjago fandom!
> 
> Future installments of the Glitch Saga May have a different authors, and a lot to the fics will have more then one.
> 
> With that out of the way, feel free to join us on discord here To follow Glitch Saga development and see official art!

Jay was not okay.

He was freaking out, which normally wasn’t particularly out of the ordinary. Jay would be the first to admit he could be a bit dramatic at times, so him flipping his shit wasn’t weird by itself.

No, what made this time special was he wasn’t with his friends; his family. He wasn’t in the monastery or on the bounty or even in Ninjago.

Or at least, not his Ninjago.

One moment he was in Nya’s arms as she whispered comforts to him while he shook like a leaf from another nightmare, and the next he was in some alternate universe. Dropped in the middle of a forest in the dead of night in a world that was not his own.

He wasn’t sure how he knew, he just did. Something was wrong with the tree he had his back against. Something he felt in his bones, but he could worry about that later, because it wouldn’t matter if he hyperventilated himself into unconsciousness. The glitching did not help at all, and it was an act of FSM himself that he hadn’t phased into another realm a dozen or so times by now.

Did this Ninjago even have other realms?

It didn’t matter, because right now his top priority was slowing his frantic breathing. He did not want to be asleep right now. Being asleep meant nightmares. Like the one he’d woken up from just a few minutes before. 

It was about that mission, because of course it was. It had only been 3 days and everything was still so fresh and he hated it. He hated the phantom laughter and the taunts whilst trying to fight an opponent he couldn’t touch who had absolutely no trouble knocking him on his ass again, and again and again, and then when they got tired of that they held him down.

He was stuck on the ground and there was blood. So much blood and it was his and Cole's and Nya’s and Kai’s and Lloyd’s and everything hurt and he’d already been stabbed so many times but somehow he was still alive. Then another spike came and nopleasstopithurtssomuchmakeitgoraway. 

Then a particularly bad glitch had him falling backward, having phased through the tree to land flat on his back. Though it hurt, Jay was infinitely grateful because the glitch stopped his spiraling, even if the static in his ears was louder and he just knew he had chunks missing all over.

“Get it together, Jay. Losing your shit didn’t help in the first realm.”

He winced at his own voice. It was layered with the same static permeating his hearing, which meant he was glitching. Glitching bad.

FSM, he really needed to calm down.

Slowly, Jay sat up, taking stock of his surroundings. He was in a forest, though it was too dark for him to really tell which one. With any luck this Ninjago would be similar enough to his own.

Granted, Jay had never been that lucky. He let out a bitter laugh. Of fucking course he’d be the one to glitch into an alternate universe. In fact now the multiverse seemed to be getting a kick out of messing with him. 

You’d think after 3 less than enjoyable trips to other realms the world would be done with him, but no. Apparently getting to stay in his own Ninjago or at the very least the realms connected to it was too much to ask. 

As if the explosion and the Oni-damned glitching it left them with wasn’t enough. This was worse than the first time one of them had glitched through time. At least they had experience with time travel, but alternate dimensions? Nope. Nada. Not even a little, because as much as Jay theorized about it with Zane, neither of them ever actually took the concept seriously. 

His eyes were growling glassy as tears built in them, a heavy weight settling in his throat and stomach. Jay really wanted to cry his eyes out right now, and it’s not like he couldn’t. Nobody was around and he’d already been on the edge of sobbing when he was still with Nya.

Nya.

He let out one of those stupid wet hiccups as his hand came up to rest on his Yin Medallion, tucked safely away under his shirt, squeezing it for the smallest bit of comfort. 

His anchor.

The metal was warm against his skin, easily felt through the thin white shirt he’d worn to bed. His only tie to home. To his family. God, it had barely been five minutes and he was already missing them so much, but he couldn’t just sit here. 

Jay wiped at his eyes harshly, sniffing as he erased the building tears that’d yet to fall. He was a ninja! One of Ninjago’s greatest protectors, and this was far from the first time he’d been dropped into a foreign world.

He stood up, the thrumming electric buzz that made itself at home in his veins driving him to move. He took a step. Then another, and Jay kept going, dressed only in the thin white shirt and blue sweatpants he slept in because he refused to sit there and wallow in his sadness any longer.

He was still glitching like there was no tomorrow. On his left arm, from his elbow down to his fingertips, was doing that weird grey and white checkerboard thing, and on his right the middle of his bicep was missing, pixels on the edges around the missing part, and FSM knew what other parts of him were glitching in and out of existence.

But it didn’t matter, or rather he would deal with it later. First and foremost, he needed to figure out where he was. Then figure out how to get home.

So with the weight of his medallion and the mantra ‘ninja never quit’ on repeat in his head above the static, he pressed on into the forest with the moon’s light to guide his path.


	2. Chapter 2

Okay, so maybe just picking a direction and walking wasn’t the best idea.

This forest-wherever it was-was creepy, though judging by the temperature it was probably Birchwood. Which was good because he had an idea of where he was, but bad because he had a t-shirt and sweatpants and he would definitely freeze if it got too cold.

Lucky for him it seemed like it was summer, which lined up with his Ninjago. It was nice to know time wasn’t messed up too.

“It could always be worse” He mumbled

Even if the situation was pretty bad, it could be so, so much worse. Jay cut that line of thought before it could spiral wildly out of control and send him into another panic.

Or rather, even worse of a panic. He was still glitching pretty badly despite his attempts to keep it together.

He kept walking, feet making no sound against the cold forest floor. He made a point to scan the area in front of him every few seconds, eyes sweeping from one end of his visions to the other. 

His feet were taking him south west on instinct, towards Ninjago City. He’d always had an uncanny sense of direction, something Jay chalked up to being the Master of Lightning. Normally it was only partially useful, but right now it was a godsend. He’d never been good at navigating using the stars or moon, and when every tree he walked past looked the same, it was nice to know what direction he was going.

Birchwood was quiet. Painfully so. And while Jay hadn’t been there enough times to know what’s normal and what’s not, but this level of quiet was most definitely not normal.

It was also unnerving.

Jay wrapped his arms around himself as he walked, more to comfort himself than to keep warm because, yes, he was a ninja. But Treehorns were terrifying and still haunted his nightmares.

‘Just keep going, your bound to hit civilization eventually’

And that was right. He was. The question was would he survive that long? Would he even stay in this universe that long? Jay really didn’t know and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to.

The quiet that followed him through the forest made every crunch of leaves and snapping twig shrill to his ears. Jay pulled at the hair that wasn’t glitching through his fingers and considered humming to try and fill the noise.

He stopped himself through the first notes of some song Cole would sing. ‘Stupid! Do you want something to find you?’

Freezing where he stood, Jay turned around and strained his senses for anything that might’ve followed him. He watched the trees for any movement, any sign that he’d awakened a Treehorn all because he couldn’t shut up for more than ten minutes.

Jay pressed a hand over his chest, trying to muffle his drumming heartbeat. When nothing attacked him, he still stood frozen in place for several long, tense moments. 

He didn’t dare to sigh this time when he started walking again. But soon, he felt his eyes starting to grow heavy. Jay muffled a quick yawn - freezing to check his surroundings again - and considered if it was safe enough to sleep. 

He found a fallen tree that was hollowed out. Surprisingly, there was already a raggedy blanket laid out on the cleared ground. Jay didn’t feel like asking why it was there, but it looked like it’d been here for only a few days. Maybe a week, give or take. 

Yawning, Jay curled up under the tree. It smelled damp, like the sky after rain mixed with - oddly - wet dog. Even with the silence, it was a long time before Jay felt himself calm enough to close his eyes. 

He could feel his arm still distort and glitch. His body too had that strange weightless-heavy sensation Jay had learned to ignore. 

The master of lighting rolled over, mumbling to himself under his breath. He’d crack one eye open, pull at his hair, reach for his medallion and then repeat the cycle in different patterns for what felt like an eternity. 

With nothing to occupy his sense, Jay’s mind wandered. Did his brothers know he was missing? Was Nya looking for him? Had any time passed at all? Or would he return to his realm, only to realize it had been decades - or even centuries - since he’d left. 

“No, no it’s not gonna be like that.” He told himself with a frail voice. 

Curling tighter in on himself, Jay forced breath through his mouth and shielded his face with arms that disappeared and broke apart into grey pixels. 

“Stupid.” 

Jay’s anxiety soon faded into a tired apathy. If something was going to come for him, he’d probably be too glitchy to even connect a punch. He really shouldn’t even be worrying about this. He needed to sleep.

A tired Ninja made mistakes, and he rather not have a Fatal one in a world that wasn’t his own. Finally, mercifully, the world was falling away piece by piece. The silence of the birchwood Forest was swallowed by his mind, slowly followed by his sight, and finally even the cold leaving his senses.

If he weren’t painfully aware of his subconscious gently embracing him, Jay would be worried he was dying.

But the thought was lost to him rather quickly, as well as anything else his brain may have tried to conjure up. The next thing Jay knew he was well and truly asleep.

—

The funny thing about dreams was that Jay never remembered them. They were always a soup of colors and sounds and sensations that he could just barely understand, and anything he did managed to glean was lost the moment his eyes opened.

Nightmares on the other hand were much different. They were vivid and crystal clear like a picture taken on the latest Borg watch. Just like now.

Painfully familiar laughter echoed all around him. He couldn’t see, or rather the mist was so thick he may as well not be able to. He didn’t bother searching for the source of the sound. Experience told him it was useless.

Blood was rushing in his ears, and his breath was short and shallow. He knew where he was. Trapped underground in a warehouse nobody knew even existed before. He was afraid, terrified even. He couldn’t bring himself to move because it was only a nightmare but it felt so so real and-

Pain. Jay cried out, hand flying to the wound in his side. If Jay turned around he was sure he’d spot the tail end of a spike.

“You’ll have to be faster than that little ninja. Aren’t you supposed to be quick as lighting?”

The voice eoched, laughter growing to a cacophony. There was another spike, and this time he actually avoided it, throwing himself to the side just in time for the projectile to fly through empty air and not his flesh.

And then there was another spike, and another, and another, and they just kept coming.

“Dance for me little ninja, dance!”

And Jay may as well have been. He dodged and flipped and rolled, and normally the familiar movements were comforting, but not now. A sidestep into a cartwheel, into a handstand, into a roll, into a handspring that saved him from being impaled, all driven by his ever rising panic. 

He could not rest for even a moment, because the spikes just didn’t stop. He wasn’t given even a second of reprieve, cruel laughter that set his hair standing on end. He was exhausting rapidly, and it was only a matter of time before he made a mistake.

When he finally did it wasn’t a very big one. Just a fraction of a second of hesitation, and his side erupted in pain. 

Then his leg. 

Then His arm. 

And Jay would’ve screamed but there there was spike straight through his chest, and all that came out was a bloody cough. 

“Not fast enough little ninja”

And now tears were mingling with the blood that fell from his mouth. It hurt. It hurt so much. The spikes skewering him burned. It felt like they were barbed and moving. Every attempt at a breath only multiplied the pain. 

He let out a wet wheeze, spewing out even more blood in the process. He’d really like to wake up right now, or maybe do that thing where dreams change for no reason. Either would be leagues better than this.

And it seemed like Just this once, the FSM was actually listening to him, because there was a loud snap. Miraculously, it wasn’t one of Jay’s bones, and relief flooded him and the nightmare slipped away

—

Fingers twitched into the damp earth as Jay picked up the sound of twigs snapping. 

His eyes broke open and scanned the limited treeline. There was only the faintest hints of dawn on the horizon, but even still, Jay could see something move in the shadows of the looming birch trees.

Fear shot through him - memories of being crushed, kicked and beaten into the snow - until he saw that whatever it was, it was too small to be a Treehorn. It’s skin was dark and blended well with the darkness, but Jay could see two small points of lilac light hovering in the black.

They stared right at him. 

‘Stupid, stupid, you can’t escape now. It probably knows you’re here - hell this is probably it’s den - and now you’re gonna die. You’re gonna die in some strange realm and you’ll never get to see Nya or the others again.’

Jay had nowhere to go, unless he conveniently fell into another realm. But really, what were the chances of that happening to him when he actually wanted it? 

He shoved himself into the furthest recesses of the fallen tree, back pressed against wood and moss. His hands were glitching so bad, he didn’t trust himself to hold his medallion. 

The teen didn’t want to close his eyes, but he was too much of a coward to look at the monster that was no doubt coming to kill him. So he bore his gaze into the ground, hoping it’d swallow him whole before this beast tore him to shreds. 

Footsteps right outside his shelter made Jay pull his limbs in tighter. Knees pressed up against his chest, heart pounding against his ribs like a caged songbird. Jay heard himself laugh at the metaphor, a manic and faint sound. 

As a shadow cast itself over the entrance, Jay decided he didn’t want to see himself being ripped to pieces. He shut his eyes and let his breathing turn into ugly sobs. Because what was the point if you were already cornered? Maybe this creature would have pity on his sorry self. 

“Hey, are you okay?” 

Jay looked up. 

It couldn’t be… but it was.

“Cole?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A wild Oni appears


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry this took so long and i sweat is I’ll never make you guys wait this long again

Being an Oni, quite frankly, sucked.

It was like being turned into a ghost all over again. Having to relearn how his own body worked, and dealing with foreign instinct and urges. He was a stranger to himself, and to make matters worse, Cole was completely alone this time.

Oh and his senses.

Lloyd had occasionally complained about sounds and scents nobody else detected, and Cole had come to empathize with him heavily. Birchwood forest was loud and smelly and he kinda hated it. He was now privy to things he’d much rather not have been, And while it made avoiding people easier, or also left him more then a little overloaded with sensory input.

At least at first.

Now, he’d grown somewhat used to everything just being more. He’d even managed to take advantage of his enhanced senses. Finding things to eat was relatively easy.

It was also easy to find when something was ‘off’

Like the contradictory scent he was getting now. It was familiar. It was Jay. He Smelled like home and the bounty and his family but it was also wrong. 

And normally something like that wound scare Cole off, but it was still Jay. Under whatever wrongness was permeating him it was still his best friend, and even though a part of him was sure that it wasn’t him-that it couldn’t be because his family thought he was dead, he had to be sure.

So Cole trekked through the snow, more or less unbothered by the cold following a scent that was both the familiar ozone and copper of Jay mixed with something distinctly other. 

He was quite as a giant Oni could be, which he’d found was somehow near as silent as he was human, which if course came in handily like his enhanced senses. Trepidation grew with each step, sinking into Cole’s stomach and the rest of his body, filling him with nervous energy.

He didn’t know what he had to be afraid of. It wasn’t like any of the creatures in Birchwood were a threat to him, even the tree horns were found to be an annoyance at best. 

But then, whoever-because it definitely wasn’t Jay. He had to believe that-or whatever here was clearly not of the forest, and maybe not even human either.

Those as Cole walked he knew he’d find out for sure. He spotted a particularly large tree. It looked gnarly, with part of its trunk hollowed our near the bottom. It was as if several of the Birchwood had grown together, and from the coalition of trees, the strange not Jay scent imminated.

He took another step through the snow, expecting it to be as quiet as the last. It was not.

There was a snap that sounded more like a gunshot in Cole’s ears. He’d stepped on a twig. A twig. 

And it seemed the sound had alerted whoever-because it was definitely a who now-was under the tree’s cover of his presence, because they shifted, then shot upright. Familiar eyes locked with his own and their was a pang in Cole’s chest because even from here he could see they were afraid.

And instinct told him to run. To run away and not look back because if this was Jay then he didn’t think he could handle seeing that fear. But he didn’t know for sure, and curiosity coupled with protectiveness he could never hope to shake drew him forward.

He crossed the gap between himself and the person who was maybe Jay. Shoved down the hurt as they scrambled back and into the small alcove the group of trees provided. He kept going till he was on the cusp of entering the tree’s cover, and bent down.

He made sure to keep his voice as low and soothing as possible, becaus now the only the denying that this was Jay was his scent and...whatever was happening with his arms and part of his legs.

Cole couldn’t really see it in detail but it looked wrong, like falling alert and being reassembled a moment later. It looked painful. And Jay or Not, he didn’t wanna see someone in pain.

“Hay, are you okay”

And then Not Jay looked hot and oh, That was definitely Jay now. He could never mistake those bright blue eyes, practically glowing in the dark of night. He was going to something else because Jay should never be that quiet and he looked so scared and-

“Cole?”

His heart broke. His best friend sounded so scared. Sounded the way Cole felt when he first woke up. Now he had to say something, anything, because none of his family should ever sound like that. So small and scared and vulnerable, but come didn’t get the chance, because the next thing he knew there was a blue and white blur and then familiar arms that still felt wrong were wrapped around him.

At that point, habit took over and Cole wrapped his arms around Jay, who was shaking like a leaf in a storm. He didn’t know if this was real anymore, even if it felt and sounded and smelled real, Jay still smelled wrong, but he was still Jay so…

So Cole hugged him back, one hand rubbing circles into his brother’s back on instinct. He ignored the cold wetness he felt on his chest, because it was pretty clear the last thing Jay needed right now was being teased for crying.

“Yea Jay, it’s me.”

This...hadn’t been anything like what he expected the reunion to be like. He thought his family had..forgotten him, but here in his arms was living proof that they hadn’t. Or maybe they had and Cole was just so desperate for company That he was hallucinating his best friend.

That would explain whatever was happening to his body, though when Cole looked down at Jay in his arms, it seemed to have calmed down. What that meant, he did not know, but Jay wasn’t shaking like a wet Chihuahua anymore.

He was actually worryingly still, and Cole Would’ve started freaking out if he didn’t hear the near silent snore escaping Jay. So he was asleep, but dead. And hopefully not a dream either, since Cole wasn’t sure he’d be able handle it if it was.

Carefully as to not jostle Jay too much, Cole shifted so he was the one with his back to the tree, letting himself slip into the little alcove the lighting Ninja had used to hide from him. He let out a sigh as he leant back against the tree, mind still racing because Jay-or-maybe-not was here and in his arms and he felt so real but at the same time Cole didn’t wanna get his hopes up.

Didn’t wanna wake up and find himself alone.

Because if he did, he just might break. 

He didn’t wanna find out what the morning would bring, but neither his body nor the world cared because right now for the first time in a while he felt safe. Like he could sleep without having to jolt awake at the slightest sound because it may be something trying to kill him.

He didn’t know if that was reassuring or worrying.

But again, his brain seemed not care even a little, and with every passing moment he was coming closer and closer to following in Jay’s footsteps.

He was still terrified to wake up with his arms empty and Jay-or-maybe-not having been a dream, but he was content to enjoy him while he was here. Taking solace in what may very well be a delusion probably wasn’t the best idea, but Cole too had stopped caring when his eyes slipped closed for the final time.


End file.
